Survival Disadvantage Reported For Female Patients With Epstein-Barr Virus.(Hodgkin's disease )

2001 MAY 10 -(NewsRx Network) -- The presence of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in women with Hodgkin's disease can negatively affect survival time after diagnosis, according to a study published in the April 15, 2001, issue of the journal Cancer.

The findings of the study indicate that the incidence among female patients between ages 45 and 79, those with EBV-positive Hodgkin's disease have a three-fold higher risk of death compared with EBV-negative patients. The research did not observe a similar effect in patients 19 to 44 years old.

EBV is an ubiquitous B-lymphotrophic herpesvirus that is suspected to be an instigator in the infectious pathogenesis of Hodgkin's disease. EBV-positive Hodgkin's disease is defined by the presence of EBV genes or gene products in the malignant cells.

EBV-positive Hodgkin's disease differs epidemiologically from EBV-negative Hodgkin's disease and prior studies have reported a variety of associations between the presence of EBV and patients' survival time. The varied results of these earlier studies are due to the small and unrepresentative nature of the case series studied, researchers say. To address this shortcoming, Christina A. Clarke, PhD, of the Northern California Cancer Center, and colleagues investigated a large, population-based series of female patients to gain a better understanding of the influence of EBV status on patient survival time after a diagnosis of Hodgkin's disease ("Epstein-Barr virus and survival after Hodgkin's disease in a population-based series of women," Cancer, 2001;91(81):1579-1587).

The study included patients who were previously identified for a population-based study of reproductive factors and Hodgkin's disease risk in adult women. A total of 311 female patients were identified through the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry of California. All patients were between the ages of 19 and 79 ...